Rep. Gresham Barrett (R) Elected 2002, 2d term
Born:	Feb. 14, 1961, Westminster
Home:	Westminster
Education:	The Citadel, B.S. 1983
Religion:	Baptist
Marital Status:	married (Natalie)
Elected  Office:	SC House of Reps., 1996-2002.
Military Career:	Army, 1983-87.
Professional Career:	Furniture store owner, 1987-96.
DC Office	1523 LHOB20515, 202-225-5301; Fax: 202-225-3216; Web site: www.house.gov/barrett
State Offices	Aiken, 803-649-5571; Anderson, 864-224-7401; Greenwood, 864-223-8251.
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The South Carolina Up Country, many days' travel by wagon from the Low Country plantations, was first settled by Scots-Irish farmers, including the family of John C. Calhoun around the time of the Revolutionary War. The pioneers wanted to make big plantations of these forests, but the land was too hilly for the labor-intensive rice crops grown in the Low Country and sometimes too cold for cotton. So relatively few slaves were brought here, and the land became mostly small farms owned by whites. Today, the racial and cultural tone of Up Country South Carolina shows traces of these roots. This is a mostly white part of the South, with a hell-of-a-fella tone to daily life and a tradition-minded slice of Middle America. Yet even this area has been touched by change. Aiken, with its horsey trappings, has long attracted affluent transplants. The nearby Savannah River Site--a 310-square-mile federal weapons plant complex that for four decades produced tritium and plutonium that fueled America's nuclear arsenal--employed generations of highly trained engineers (and produced nuclear waste), but more than 10,000 were laid off in the past decade; some local leaders want to build a nuclear power plant there. Today, Interstate 85--once the Main Street of America's textile belt--sits amidst a booming southeastern corridor that runs from Raleigh-Durham to Atlanta. Clemson University, founded here by Calhoun's son-in-law and one of state's two land-grant institutions, has helped attract European companies seeking sites for big plants to this area.

The 3d Congressional District of South Carolina follows the Georgia border north from the Savannah River Site through the tree-harvesting country around McCormick County to mountains along the North Carolina border. The southern part of the 3d has a few heavily black areas, like Edgefield County, where Strom Thurmond grew up and first won public office in the 1930s; Edgefield County grew significantly in the 1990s as it became part of the metropolitan area around Aiken and Augusta, Georgia. This part of South Carolina, ancestrally Democratic, began trending Republican in the 1950s, first in Yankified Aiken, then in the Up Country as cultural issues became more important in this fervently religious area. The 3d has consistently voted Republican even when Democrats have won statewide elections. In 2004 George W. Bush won 66% of the vote here, his best showing in a South Carolina district.

The congressman from the 3d District is Gresham Barrett, a Republican first elected in 2002. Barrett grew up in Westminster in Oconee County and graduated from The Citadel in Charleston. After serving as an artillery captain in the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, he returned home to run his family's furniture store. In 1996 he was elected to the state House. In 2001 when Lindsey Graham, the first Republican to hold this seat since Reconstruction, started running for the Senate, Barrett quickly became the frontrunner to succeed him. He opposed abortion, defended gun owner rights, called for a national missile defense system and new weapons technology as part of the effort to "hunt down scum like Osama bin Laden and wipe their kind from the face of the Earth." He told voters that government should operate more like a business--his business, specifically. Government should work "like Barrett's Furniture, where you get service, you get simplicity and people are there to help you." With a superior grass roots organization, he got 43% of the vote in the six-candidate June primary. In the two-week runoff campaign, second-place-finisher state Representative Jim Klauber argued that Barrett wasn't tough enough in cracking down on illegal immigrants; Barrett insisted that military issues were paramount. He raised more money, won more endorsements and won the runoff 65%-35%. Barrett won the general election 67%-31%.

In the House, Barrett hoped for a seat on Armed Services but instead got Budget and Financial Services. Ever the Citadel graduate (his father, brother and two nephews are also grads), he drew attention for his crisp, military bearing. "With his pressed suits and posture as perfect as the Washington Monument's, Gresham Barrett is perhaps Congress' most starched member," wrote The State newspaper. He joined the Republican Study Committee and had a conservative voting record with occasional maverick tendencies; he was one of the 15 House Republicans who voted against both the Medicare deal and the omnibus appropriations bill in late 2003. The House passed his amendment for the Energy Department to study the feasibility of commercial nuclear energy production at Savannah River. He sponsored a bill to stop immigration into the United States from any "known terrorist state." Barrett was unopposed in 2004.

Committees

• Budget (9th of 22 R).
• Financial Services (28th of 37 R): Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit; Oversight & Investigations.
• International Relations (23d of 27 R): Europe & Emerging Threats; International Terrorism & Nonproliferation.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	0	0	0	0	70	80	100	100	100	100	--
2003	10	--	13	5	--	76	87	96	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	29%	--	70%		0%	--	95%
Social	5%	--	87%		0%	--	91%
Foreign	36%	--	63%		10%	--	86%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Gresham Barrett (R)	unopposed
2004 primary	Gresham Barrett (R)	unopposed
2002 general	Gresham Barrett (R)	119,644	67%	$960,402
	George Brightharp (D)	55,743	31%	$64,187
	Other	2,808	2%

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 169,283 (66%) Kerry (D) 86,947 (34%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 142,414 (63%) Gore (D) 77,694 (34%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Third District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +14
• District Size: 5,568 square miles
• Population in 2000: 668,669; 50.3% urban; 49.7% rural
• Median Household Income: $36,092; 13.3% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 36.8% blue collar; 48.7% white collar; 14.5% gray collar; 13.5% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 76.0% White, 20.5% Black, 0.6% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.7% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 1.9% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 15.0% USA, 8.0% Irish, 7.3% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.